Campaign Seed
It wasn't supposed to be this way.
I was the firstborn; and not only that, I always was cleverer than my
younger, rowdier siblings. But Fate made me a woman, and my fool of a
father believed that made me unfit for the tasks he had in mind for
his children. So he kept me hidden; none but he and my mother ever
knew I existed.
When his first son was born, when he knew the One True Crown would
never pass to me, he tried to distract me by making me queen of
another realm. But just to be on the safe side, he made sure I could
never return to take what was rightfully mine: and thus were the paths
between his world and mine forever barred except to the dead and the
dreaming. The throne of Amber eventually was given to my rat-fink of a
youngest brother.
And so I sit on my crystal throne and listen to the thoughts of men. I
walk among their dead; I murmur secrets to their unborn; I whisper
wise words to them in their dreams that remain as a half-remembered
echoes when they wake. And they all know my face; but few, if any,
remember my name.
But things are changing: Men and gods dream of war. The path of the
dead now stretches in a visible line through the land of the living,
and my horsemen ride it freely. And in the dreams of the prophets, I
learn that my baby brother will soon cross into my realm, giving the
throne to his youngest just as his father did.
It is almost time for me to make my move. I shall reclaim what always
has been mine.
I, Lilith. Daughter of Dworkin. Queen of Tir.
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Dramatis Personae
Lilith, Queen of Tir - Bernadette Peters
(AKA Lily White, Titania)
Dream - Trent Reznor
or Jim Morrison
or David Bowie
or Ralph Fiennes
(AKA Morpheus, Sandman)
Destiny - Julie Andrews
(AKA Mother Hubbard)
Delirium - Tori Amos
Death - Kate Bush (http://gaffa.org/sensual/p_tww2.jpg)
or Bebe Neuwirth (www.hissandpop.com/celebrities/n/bebeneuwirth)
Desire - Judy Garland (www.classicmoviemusicals.com/jgwp3.jpg)
Despair - Kurt Cobain
Hope - Fiona Apple
Others - Peter Gabriel, Jeff Buckley, Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee,
Keely Smith
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Notes
Dream's wife Hope has been stolen, rendered amnesiac, and kept on
drugs that keep her from dreaming (so Dream can't find her). She
believes that she is a mental patient undergoing an experimental
treatment, and that her memories start at the point when the
treatment began to work. Before that, she has been told, she
was living in a maximum-security inpatient facility. Now she
lives in the suburbs with her "doctor" and his son (who knows
nothing of his father's schemes), to whom she is married.
The Doctor may be a Shadow or child or protege of Brand.
The Dreamland encompasses the near border of The Beyond; because
most of one's soul stays with one's body when one dreams, the
memories of one's encounters there are distorted and hazy, making
them seem unreal. Certain drugs and mystical rites can get around
this problem.
When one encounters others in one's dreams, one is interacting
with others who are dead or dreaming. If the characters of one's
dream seem almost-but-not-quite familiar, they are probably the
Shadows of one's acquaintances.
Doing bad things to a powerful being often affects that being's
Shadows. When Hope was ripped from The Beyond, many of her Shadows
were killed or seriously weakened or injured.
Corwin and Dream may or may not be close Shadows of one another.
Corwin's Pattern has opened a path between The Real and The Beyond.
The Moonriders are Lilith's horsemen.
Vialle can see in The Beyond. How is Vialle associated with the Endless?
One of Lilith's younger siblings was given Rebma. Moins was the child
of that sibling. (Lir?)
Another sibling (Aidan?) was given The Beneath (the Fire realm). Clarissa
is descended from that line.
Climbing the stairs to Tir gets one to the shadowy reflection of Tir. One
sees the inhabitants of Tir as ghosts, and vice-versa. The Pattern at Tir
exists in the reflection, not in Tir itself; Lilith cannot walk it. She
can traverse The Beyond at will, but cannot cross over into The Real except
in spirit form. She can scry dreams with her crystal orb, set into the
floor of the Throne Room in Tir.
Only the Unicorn can traverse all realms at will.